‘Godzilla’ trailer: King of Monsters strikes terror in first teaser

Dec. 10, 2013 | 10:57 a.m.

The first full-length trailer for “Godzilla” was out Tuesday morning, revealing plenty of tension, copious destruction and an enormous, havoc-wreaking kaiju.

“Godzilla” is directed by Gareth Edwards, whose ambitious independent film “Monsters” garnered critical praise for its mash-up of big visual effects and small art-house atmosphere in 2010. Despite the enormous scale of the remake, the trailer seems to emphasize the ordinary people who get caught in the monster’s wake.

The teaser begins with a group of military troops preparing to jump from a plane and face off against Godzilla.

“I realize not all of you have had hands-on experience, and frankly, none of us have ever faced a situation quite like this one before,” their commander tells them. “But I would not be asking any one of you to take this leap if I did not have complete faith in your ability to succeed. Your courage will never be more needed than it is today.”

As the troops dive through the sky, plumes of red smoke trail behind them, and their breath comes in frantic gasps.

The King of all Monsters himself is little more than a silhouette in the trailer, though evidence of his strength and enormity is seen in flattened city streets and smashed-through skyscrapers.

The trailer also offers a glimpse at several members of the cast, which includes “Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston, Aaron Taylor-Johnson (“Kick-Ass”), Ken Watanabe (“Inception”) and Elizabeth Olsen (“Oldboy”).

At Comic-Con International in San Diego this summer, Cranston said that Edwards’ indie-film background is partially what attracted him to taking the role.

“It was fantastic because he was able to make a monster movie also into a character-driven component where you really felt for these people,” Cranston said of “Monsters.” “And that’s what he transformed this ‘Godzilla’ into.”

“It felt small,” she said. “It felt creative. I never waited around for two hours for a setup. We were just on set the whole time, going at it. It was like an independent production, really.”

Legendary Pictures has been drumming up hype for the film since it was first announced at Comic-Con 2012. Leading up to the trailer release, the studio posted mysterious video snippets on mutoresearch.net, a promotional site designed to look like a government research portal, with streaming code and static-y sound effects.

Godzilla was a staple of my childhood, I watched every one of them with my Grandad several times. I really hope to see Zilla vs Monster fights because they were always better than the Zilla vs Tokyo movies. Zilla should also take center stage, no lame love story, no kid with a dog, no hero saves the day can top Godzilla fighting for the crown. It is really easy the mess this up and turn it in to Cloverfield 2.

LOOKS GREAT THIS IS THE GODZILLA OF OLD ALL HE DOES IS DESTROY, AND NOTHING ON EARTH COULD STOP HIM. IF THEY KEEP TO THE ORIGINAL THEN THEY BETTER HOPES HE JUST LEAVES AND GO TO SLEEP UNTIL THE NEXT TIME!!!!

Appreciate your enthusiasm, but today's audience wants their sci-fi to be more real-science based, and any flesh and bone living creature, no matter its size, could be destroyed by even a small-yield nuclear weapon. Of course the collateral damage would be catastrophic, so that choice alone would make for compelling drama. But even Godzilla would be killable with today's tech (even with the tech of the original creature's day).

« the trailer seems to emphasize the ordinary people who get caught in the monster’s wake. »

sounds like "Cloverfield," but at least it can't be as bad as that, including given what Bryan Cranston had to say about director Edwards' "Monsters." even the 1999 version with Matthew Broderick (tho no fault of his) was better.

i like that the Kanji was included on the poster, as a hat-tip/reference to the proper pronunciation of 'gojira'.

You must have watched something else called CLOVERFIELD because the film I watched about a monster in New York from its terrorized victims POV was terrific. And, instead of worrying about how to pronounce some made-up Japanese word, why not focus a little more on your lack of English punctuation skills?

I've been watching the Big Guy for 50+ years, and all I ever wanted is for him to look "real". The last 5 seconds of the trailer with Godzilla moving through the smoking city NAILED IT! Yeah, I'll be there opening day!